


The Assistant

by Nectere



Series: Knights of Tomorrow [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Cat Grant Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Checkmate Is Totally Running Things, F/F, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-03-23
Packaged: 2018-09-25 13:45:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9823184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nectere/pseuds/Nectere
Summary: Cat Grant had just made a decision to take a break from CatCo an National City when a strange girl fell out of thin air and onto her hardwood floors.  Not terribly unusual, except the strangely dressed superhero isn't Supergirl, claims to be from the future, and convinces her not only to stay but to take her on as a replacement assistant so that she can keep the universe from imploding or something.And well, Cat likes the universe, most of the time. Besides, she needs to show Kara how to properly keep a secret. A pair of glasses won't do it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Nectere should not be allowed to write at 3AM on pain meds.
> 
> Our intrepid plot device is based on a combination of Ariella Kent with some borrowing from Power Girl and Superboy for SuperCorp purposes.

Cat was sitting in her living room, sipping on some Moët & Chandon as she considered the choice she had made. The adventure of Supergirl, the thrill of discovery, had only drawn her out of her rut for so long. The stagnation that she feared was falling in on her again. It was always the same petty stories and he same petty concerns, with a rotating cast of characters, most completely indistinguishable from the next and forgotten just as easily. She needed something new. She needed a challenge. Leaving was for the best. She put her champagne flute down with a clink, and almost simultaneously someone dropped out of thin air.

This was not entirely strange: not for National City, but Cat was firmly indoors and there was no hole in her ceiling -- and more importantly  _that_ was not Supergirl. Well, probably not. The heap on her floor was in a white suit of some sort that completely covered her body and seemingly impossible to tell where there might be seams, save for the eyes, which were currently closed. It was certainly a better way to conceal your identity than a ponytail and a pair of glasses, anyway. When the girl moved, she did take in the fact that there was a S on the chest, but it was a subtle sky blue one, slightly raised on the chest of the suit. 

The girl groaned and stood, holding a hand to her head. "That hurt."

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Cat asked, snapping into either reporter mode or someone who had a few too many attempts at being hurt under her belt.

The girl opened blue eyes that went wide in shock. "Cat!" She said, shocked, reaching up and pinching something to pull a strange mask from her face. "You...don't know me?"

"Should I?" Cat asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you're trying to be Supergirl, you're way off. At least the last wannabe tried." The girl had dark curls, not blonde, but the shape of the face was similar, with better cheekbones. 

"Okay, this is bad." The girl said, running a hand through her hair. "I am Supergirl, but not the one you know, I'm from the future."

"The future." Cat repeated with dry incredulity. She'd already be calling security if she had another explanation, but that sounded even more insane than she was prepared for tonight.

"Yep." The girl said, popping the 'p' at the end of the word as if she had said she had flown in from St. Louis. "Something started yanking me back, so I started fighting it, and the next thing I know, I end up here." The girl looked at her feet like a four-year-old. "I guess I was thinking that I wish I had your help, and somehow, I was here."

"You know me in the future?" Cat asked, picking her glass back up and draining it quickly. She was going to need something stronger in a minute. 

"You're like family." Not-Supergirl informed her. "You practically created the Supergirl legacy, and I can't count how many times Mom's ended up on your balcony or in your office needing advice or to clear her head. You'd be my godmother if you hadn't kept telling her you were too young for that."

"Your Supergirl's daughter."

"Yep."

"From the future."

"Yep."

Cat would have doubted it, but the eyes convinced her, not to mention the improbable appearance, and the fact that the newcomer knew about Supergirl's random appearances. "What's your name?"

The girl removed a white glove and held out a hand. "I'm Leora." She shuffled her feet slightly. "Any chance you can help me find a job and a place to stay until I can figure out how to get myself back to the future or someone else comes back to get me?"

"Not asking for much, are you?" She was beginning to get a headache. "You can stay here for now, and borrow something of mine until we can get you actual clothes. As for a job, you can fill in until I can get a new one trained...if you can figure out how to get yourself an identity."

"Get me a computer and I'll be fine." Leora said, with a kind of cocky grin Supergirl didn't really have. This one was more confident, that was for sure. 

Cat smiled back, a mean, ruthless little smile. "What's your last name anyway?"

Leora stopped at that. "Well, I can't use Danvers here, it'd tip off Mom..." She paused and thought this over, before grinning. "I think I'll use McGinnis here."

Cat grinned in victory. She had  _known_ Kara was Supergirl. It just solidified her decision to make sure Kara handled her own problems with Snapper, though. She had to figure out how to work with abrasive, vindictive people and Snapper was good somewhere underneath, unlike a lot of people. "You told me who Supergirl is, you know."

Leora rolled her eyes. "You knew already and we both know it."

Cat took the time-traveler's still outstretched hand. "Welcome to 2016, Miss McGinnis."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat decides that the universe would implode if she leaves CatCo.
> 
> Oh, and Leora has her first day at the magazine.

Cat had thrown a robe at Leora and finished off the entire bottle of champagne after making a late night call to one of her personal shoppers, and giving them Futuregirl's measurements. Actually, no, she didn't like that. She'd have to come up with something better than Futuregirl. It would come to her, it always did. The time-traveller had settled in with Cat's laptop, and as Leora typed away with super-speed, she tried to explain the nature of the universe to Cat, who had moved on from the champagne to a bottle of rotgut she had stolen from Perry White when she had left, just to piss him off.

"...Luckily, I have a bit too much power, and have some experience with reality altering physics, I just have to figure out where or when the breach is, so that the universe doesn't collapse." Leora was saying in a full on Kara Danvers ramble. Cat, however, always caught the important bits.

"The universe could _collapse_?" Cat repeated, suddenly very glad she had moved this mystery to the top of her priority list. It would not due for Cat Grant to be off having some Eat, Pray, Love kind of journey to fulfillment and what passed for spiritual enlightenment if she missed the end of the universe. She liked the universe the way it was. It was where she lived, after all, and while Supergirl was doing a lot better than when she started, Cat didn't think she was up to fighting universal collapse.

"Well, yeah, super-villains with time travel abilities are a bad idea." Leora said, as she created herself a license and all the necessary identity papers. "Everything feels stable for now, though."

So much for coral reefs, shinto temples, and hidden alpine chalets.

* * *

 Waking the next morning, she found a large glass of water, two pain pills and aromatherapy salts by her bed. When she finally emerged from her room, she found Carter eating breakfast, and Leora preparing what looked like coffee, dressed in the clothes that must have been delivered while Cat was sleeping.

“Morning Mom!” Carter said happily. “Leora made me breakfast!”

“Did she.” Cat said, looking at the time-traveller with a raised eyebrow. She hadn’t thought through the fact that Leora staying with her meant that the superhero would be interacting with her son. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She wouldn’t do anything to purposefully put Carter in danger, but... _universal collapse._

“Coffee.” Leora said, handing it to Cat. “I went out and got your favourite kind and pressed it myself before anyone woke up.”

Cat’s suspicions melted away as she took a sip of the liquid and found that it was, in fact, _better_ than her favourite coffee. No one ever managed to get her coffee order right, and this girl just improved it. “How…?”

Leora just grinned and tapped her watch. “I’ve been making coffee for all my favorite people since I was four.”

Huh. Maybe the best way to get a perfect assistant was to start training them young.

Cat showed Leora to the desk that Eve Teschmacher, she of the torrential ranch dressing, had recently vacated when Cat moved her back down to another department. “This will be where you work. I take it you understand your duties?”

“Yes, Miss Grant.” Leora said, hiding a grin in a respectful nod. They were in public, after all.

Of course, her plans for the day went to smash when Kara Danvers and _Clark Kent_ walked in.

* * *

 Leora watched in amusement as Cat forgot all about her, and James and Kara discussed Cat’s crush on Superman. It still felt strange to her, but she wasn’t one to judge. Well, not Clark’s romances anyway. On hearing discussions of a date between Kara and James, she barely resisted the urge to make a face.

So...maybe she would meddle a little. She wanted to make sure she continued existing, after all. She walked up to them. “Hi, am I interrupting?”

Kara looked at her in surprise, and then shook her head. “No...no, of course not. I’m Kara Danvers.” She smiled at her warmly.

“James Olsen.” James introduced as well. “And you are…?”

“Leora McGinnis, Miss Grant’s new assistant.” Leora said, shaking their hands. “It’s my first day at CatCo, so I’m just trying to get to know everyone, get the lay of the land.”

“I’ve just left that position.” Kara told the girl with the dark curls and somehow familiar blue eyes. “It can be a bit...difficult at the beginning. If you ever need any tips, just let me know.”

Leora gave her mother a bright smile. “I might do that, thank you.”

Just then, Kara’s phone went off, and she checked it apologetically. “It’s Alex, I have to take this. It was nice to meet you, Leora.” Kara wandered off, answering her phone quietly.

Leora chatted with James for a few minutes, feeling a bit bad for interfering. She knew she probably shouldn’t have, but she couldn’t help herself. She knew James and Kara wouldn’t last much longer. Her mother’s issues and tendency to have things for people she thought she couldn’t have for one reason or another, just so that she couldn’t lose them and feel abandoned when things went wrong would rear its’ ugly head, but it was hard to not interfere. She was good at interfering.

* * *

 Leora worked in the office, effortlessly handling Cat’s affairs and calls --well, maybe not _effortlessly_ , but she got along quickly and knew exactly what she was doing. It was a good thing it wasn’t _actually_ her first time playing assistant to Cat Grant, though, because she was distracted. She knew what happened today, and the superhero itch was plaguing her, telling her to get involved. By the time the news had caught on and was showing video of the drones, she was handing over paperwork to Cat that she had already cleared, biting her lip as she watched the screens.

“Go.” Cat ordered with a wave. “Power Girl should make her debut.”

Leora quirked an eyebrow at the name, but nodded and left quickly, without a word. Cat took the paperwork and eyed it carefully, surprised by a note Leora had made on one, suggesting she take it back to the lawyers and change a clause, still keeping one eye on the screens.

* * *

 Newly dubbed ‘Power Girl,’ and if Warhawk didn’t crack a rib at that she’d keel over in shock, Leora was changed and in the sky like a shot, already trying to strategize. Her obvious mission was to help the civilians and let the present Supergirl handle the chopper.

She saw Superman dive to try and protect a family, shielding them with his cape, deciding to be helpful, she blasted it with her own heat vision. “Clear!” She yelled to him, giving him a quick thumbs up as the shots failed to hit, and then zooming off again with a laugh.

It was nice for a few minutes to just _fight_ for a minute, to forget that she was in the past, to stop thinking about consequences and calculating physics equations and just do what she did best. After making sure the drones were destroyed and doing a quick fly-by to check on Lena Luthor, she headed back to work. She needed to plan for the renaming ceremony.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The renaming ceremony and the fallout thereof.

“And you’re sure it wasn’t our missing Kryptonian?” Supergirl asked again, looking at Clark and hoping for a different answer to the question she had already asked twice. “I mean, you only got a quick look…”

“And it was definitely a woman, Kara.” Superman answered, smiling gently at her. “My vision is just as good as yours.”

"And our guest is still in the medbay." J'onn reminded her. "You checked yourself."

“And...I’ve got video!” Winn said, as he pressed a few buttons and the scene of the white-garbed flying hero heat-visioning the drone as Superman protected the family played out via the camera of some intrepid reporter.

“Definitely not our lost Kryptonian.” J’onn agreed. It was clear to everyone, including Kara, that while this newcomer didn’t wear a skirt like Kara, she was no less feminine. The white suit she was wearing molded to her body, and covered her completely so they didn’t even have a face to go on to try and discover her identity.

“But she is a Kryptonian.” Kara finished, watching the scene again as it played on a loop. She didn’t know how to feel. She had hoped for more Kryptonians once, a family, with Astra and Clark, maybe even Non, but where had this one come from? She didn’t seem to be a criminal so Fort Roz was unlikely. “Has there been another pod crash?”

“None that we’ve found.” J’onn said, shaking his head. “But I’ll have Agent Schott run another scan, just in case.”

Kara wanted to be happy, but she was nervous. The Supergirl half of her life was together, what if this new Kryptonian took that from her? What if she was a better hero? She couldn’t go back to being just Kara.

* * *

 Kara was shocked that Lena Luthor had invited her to walk with her to the renaming ceremony, even after everything that had happened to her. In Lena’s place, Kara would be too paranoid to go through with this, and Lena was worrying about turnout. She half wanted to shake the other woman. “You’re taking an awful risk, going ahead with the renaming ceremony with your life in danger.”

“I won’t have a life if I can’t make this company into something positive.” Lena insisted, looking like an old movie star in a trench coat over a little black dress. “All it will be remembered for is Lex’s madness.”

Kara couldn’t help but stare at the Luthor heiress as she moved to the podium. She so desperately _wanted_ to believe she was different.

* * *

Leora had donned her mask and stripped down to her supersuit, making sure to press the button that would allow her to go invisible. She didn’t use it all that much in her own time, preferring to rely on her innate abilities over technology, but it allowed for more stealth here. She perched herself high over the ceremony, where she could still listen in and wait for the right time.

Explosions went off and chaos ensued. “I guess that’s my cue.” She murmured, wishing she had people in her ear, like she was used to, and switching off the invisibility. After swooping down and lifting a child out of the blast radius and ensuring that James was fine helping someone else, she zoomed toward the building, where the two Kryptonian cousins were holding up the building against gravity. She hit hard, pushing joining the efforts to keep the building from completely collapsing.

“What are you doing here?” Supergirl asked, looking down at the newcomer, even as Winn referenced Star Wars in her ear.

“Trying to help prevent a catastrophic building collapse, thanks.” Power Girl replied.

Kara would have said something more, but this wasn’t the time or place. “I’m going to fix the building.” She said, seeing the steel supports and getting an idea.

“Go, go, we got this.” Superman grunted, shifting position to take more of the weight. “So while we’re stuck here, how’d you escape the destruction of Krypton? Why come out now?”

Power Girl resisted the urge to chuckle. “I didn’t.” She replied, pressing harder. “I was born on Earth. I’m only half-Kryptonian.” She let out a sigh as the building seemed to steady itself with a groan.

“She did it.” Superman said, gently pulling back, in case it didn’t hold.

“Never doubted her.” Power Girl replied, flying off again.

* * *

 Kara hated seeing Alex in danger, so when the assassin was holding her hostage, her first instinct was to give in to what he wanted. If she did, though, she knew Alex would never forgive her. Hoping to buy time, she started talking. “Lex Luthor hired you to kill his sister, didn’t he?”

“Luthor still has resources and reach, even rotting in maximum security lockdown.” Corben replied, moving Alex to take a step. “Now I’m leaving and there’s nothing you can d..”

His speech was interrupted by gunshots, and Supergirl, who had been focused on the threat looked up at Lena Luthor, who was still holding a gun in her hand. Blue eyes met green, and it was Alex speaking to her that broke her out of it.

“...but he needs a hospital. Nice work, Supergirl.”

“I had help.” Supergirl admitted, almost shrugging as she locked eyes again with Lena Luthor and then forced herself to turn away and look at the skies behind her, spotting Superman easily. The mysterious girl, however, was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

 Kara Danvers was proud and more than a little smug to be standing next to Clark when he delivered a copy of the paper to her, though all of them knew that she had probably gotten an email alert the moment it went live digitally. She was so _glad_ to see Lena Luthor break free from the mold that Clark had cast her in, and then the brunette had turned the tables on her.

“What about you, Ms. Danvers? I didn’t see your name on the byline.”

Kara picked up on the way her voice softened slightly, and the look in her eyes was different, in a way that made a shiver go down Kara’s spine that she didn’t understand, and made her stutter. “Uh...uh...well, like I said, I’m not a reporter.”

“You could have fooled me,” Lena said, with such _belief_ wound in her words that Kara almost believes it too, and completely missed the sideways look Clark gave her.

“I hope this isn’t the last time we talk?” Lena asked, walking back to her desk, as if nothing would bother her.

“I hope not either.” Kara admitted, not knowing if she was talking to _her_ or to Clark, but either way it was true.

* * *

 Leora eavesdropped, proudly, on her mother’s speech about why she wanted to be a reporter, and marveled once again at the strange feeling she got at being part of the events that she had only heard of before, vicariously living a life she was not meant to be a part of. That didn’t mean that she would give up trying to figure out what had drawn her here and how to get home. Possibly after she spent a few hours in a tanning bed.

“Miss McGinnis!”

“Yes, Miss Grant.” Leora answered, walking into the office and passing Kara, steno pad in hand.

“Call Rudy and let him know I’m going to need a deep tissue massage this afternoon, and make sure that the layouts are sent down to print stat. I also want you to pick up Carter, and ensure he does his homework.”

“Of course.” Leora told her with a grin. “You know, Miss Grant, sometimes pools seem shallow, but all you have to do is find the right spot to dive.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leora plays chess and Metallo makes trouble.

After pulling herself out of a tanning bed filled with vitamin-D sunlamps, Leora dragged herself to a dark part of National City and upon coming across a normal looking warehouse in the shady part of town, entered a code into a keypad. When the door buzzed, she walked across to the elevator that looked entirely out of place in such a building, and entered another code. The elevator seemed to hitch for a moment, stalling. “I know you can see me.” She said aloud to the cameras. “Stop stalling, Holt. You know time travel when you see it.”

The elevator whined in complaint as it began to descend again. The doors opened, and she found herself looking into the barrels of several guns. “Yeah, like that’s going to do anything.” She said, rolling her eyes and walking past Valentina and Fire with ease to where Holt was standing, arms crossed and tense. “All I’m doing is checking in and letting you know a rogue piece has entered the board. You know, we really should have time-travel protocol.”

“It’s never been an issue before.” Michael Holt said, tilting his head to look at her. “Who are you?”

“The current alias I’m answering to in this time is Leora McGinnis.” She offered, with a smirk, knowing that’s not what he wanted. “Though I believe CatCo is also using ‘Power Girl.’” The pictures of her holding up the building with Superman had made Cat a little _too_ happy.

“Who are you  _really_?” He demanded.

“Leora Luthor, designated White Knight, Gotham Board in my own time.” She held out her hand. “Though I suggest we don’t use that. No need to give my mother a mental breakdown, Mr. Terrific.”

Holt blinked, staring at the girl for a long moment, and then started laughing. “That’d do it.” He turned back to the bank of computers along the wall. “We’ll shift your designation to White Queen’s Bishop while you’re here, in case anything occurs, but I’m assuming you’re not planning on being active.”

“We’ll see.” Leora said, frowning. “I’ve already changed the timeline slightly in order to keep it stable. If it becomes necessary, I may take a role, but as of now, I’m not planning on it.”

“Well…” Holt said after a moment. “Welcome back to Checkmate, Miss...McGinnis.”

* * *

 “Wait!” Kara said, grabbing Clark’s arm as he moved to leave. She knew he and J’onn were tense and angry, but she got to spend so little time with him, and there were things she had to discuss. “What about the other Kryptonian? You said you talked to her when the building was falling.”

Clark looked suspiciously at J’onn, before letting Kara drag the answer out of him. “She’s not Kryptonian, not like you and I. According to her, she’s half-Kryptonian, born here on Earth.”

“Is that even possible?” Alex asked, eyes wide. “The differences in biology, are human-Kryptonian children even viable?”

“Yes.” Kara said slowly. “Father said it was difficult, but possible, that Uncle Jor-El would not have chosen Earth if there was no way for Kal-El and I to have children.”

“Either way, that’s what she said.” Clark shrugged slightly.

“I don’t know if I trust her.” Kara admitted. “If she’s telling the truth, why wear a mask? I don’t wear a mask. What does she have to hide?”

“Your friend Barry wears a mask.” Alex pointed out. “It’s probably just to retain her other identity.”

* * *

Leora couldn’t help but listen in on Kara’s first meeting with Snapper in amusement. While Cat had pushed her leave to the side, she had still decided that Kara needed someone who wouldn’t ‘ _coddle_ ,’ her like Cat did, but still leave room for her to be Supergirl, and Snapper, while only a Pawn, was still part of Checkmate. Still, that didn’t mean he liked Cat, or that he was even slightly okay with having Kara assigned to him not only as an asset, but also as a writer. Leora was going to be taking _so much_ video to show people when she got home. Jon would feel better about his own mistakes and Connor might _actually_ relax for five minutes. It made almost all of the drama, the feeling of being utterly out-of-place, the uncertainty of what pulled her here, even the bone-deep loneliness of being somewhere where no one truly knew her _almost_ worth it.

* * *

 When the jumper on the bridge came across the news, Leora had a niggling feeling, and excused herself from dinner with Cat, making half an excuse about a headache only because Carter was in the room. Something felt wrong, off, about this. Reality had shifted somehow, and she wasn’t sure if it was because of her presence or something else.

By the time she had arrived at the bridge, even flying at her top speed, Clark was on the ground in a crater and Metallo was getting ready to fire what looked like a fatal shot at Supergirl. In that moment of panic, everything she knew about time travel, everything about not releasing too much information for fear of contaminating or altering the timeline, went to smash. “Mom!” She shouted despite herself, and flew hard into Supergirl. She heard the other woman hit the bridge, but no matter how hard Leora hit her, the kryptonite was more dangerous. She could take more exposure before it was fatal, thanks to her human half. As her sight went green and she fell out of the air like an anvil, she tried to hit a button hidden on her wrist, to retain some hint of her training. The last thing she saw was Metallo’s face over her, and another beam of kryptonite that pushed her into unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leora wakes up and discovers that kryptonite apparently bypasses her filter, and accidentally reveals a bit too much.

“She called me  _ Mom.” _   Kara repeated for the fifth time as she paced inside one of the medical bays in the DEO. Clark and Alex were by her side, looking just as stressed, if that was even possible. “She pushed me out of the way of Metallo’s beam and called me  _ Mom.” _

“Kara.” Alex said, softly, but in frustration. “I know what she said, but you said yourself it’s impossible.” Alex sighed when Kara looked at her with those big eyes. “Kara…”

“But she told Clark she was half-Kryptonian, and that blast would have killed a full Kryptonian, so maybe…”

Winn entered the room with a laptop on his arm and J’onn behind him. “I believe I may have solved the mystery!”

Clark let out a sigh of relief. “Do tell.”

Winn basked for a second in the feeling of Superman speaking to him, before he cleared his throat and managed to answer. “Several nights ago, there was a burst of random temporal energy, similar to when Barry entered this world, but it dissipated too quickly to get a solid lock on it, and there were no strange reports, so we logged it in the pile of strange anomalies and moved on, but when we did a bio-scan of Power Girl here…”

“Leora.” Kara corrected, biting her lip. They hadn’t meant to out the other superhero, she had saved her, after all, but the medical team had needed to attach leads all over her body to scan for and treat any other damage. Kara had been a little less surprised than she should have been when she saw Cat Grant’s newest replacement for her under the mask. 

“Right, Leora.” Winn corrected. “She’s covered in residual temporal energy.”

“You’re saying she’s from the  _ future _ ?” Clark repeated. 

“Absolutely.” Winn said, nodding his head. “And if the scans weren’t enough to prove it, that suit of hers is. I’ve never seen tech  _ anywhere _ like this.” He was off, happily babbling about how the suit was covering an exoskeleton of circuits with built in recording devices, biological function tracking, heat, radiation, electricity and water resistance, retractable claws "…And a motherfucking  _ cloaking device _ , like, right out of a Romulan warbird!”

“Thank you, Agent Schott.” J’onn rumbled, a hand on his shoulder.

Any further discussion was cut off with a groan from the bed surrounded by yellow sun lamps. “Rao, T, I am  _ slagged. _ Who let Nightstar bring the Tamaranean ale again?” Leora Luthor opened her eyes and found herself completely confused for a moment. Instead of the room she had expected, she found herself waking up in a bright medical center, and a glance reminded her where and more importantly  _ when _ she was and that her joke would have fallen completely flat. “Ugh.” She groaned lightly. “Right.” She attempted to stretch slightly, wincing at the movement, and turned to look at Kara. “You okay? I hit you pretty hard.”

“ _ Me _ ?” Kara demanded, eyes wide. “You took kryptonite blasts!”

“And it feels it.” Leora agreed with a wince. “I’ll stay lying here in the nice sunlamps, thanks.” She curled into herself slightly. Her head really  _ was _ pounding, but she worked hard to keep her mental shields up anyway. She had already polluted the timeline, she had to be careful how much more she did that.

Alex growled, moving forward toward the bed. “If you want to stay in the nice sunlamps, you better start answering some questions.” 

“Sure, Aunt Alex.” Leora replied, before Kara could do more than open her mouth to protest. “As much as I can, anyway. The timeline’s already changing, and I’m trying to keep it as stable as I can. I really shouldn't have needed to be in that battle, Metallo wasn’t so strong in my past, at least according to Momma Sunny and Clark.” She waved at the two Supers.

Alex started back slightly, more surprised than she should be. “So, McGinnis…” Her voice was full of doubt, accentuating the name. 

Leora laughed. “Boyfriend’s last name.” She said, waving it off. “I thought it might be too risky to use mine in case this happened. Can you imagine if Momma Sunny knew who she was supposed to marry from the moment they met? I wouldn’t do that to her, and Danvers would have been far too easy to see through.” She smirked slightly. “Besides, maybe if he finds out, he’ll get the hint.”

“Momma Sunny?” Kara repeated, blinking.

Leora shrugged, wincing again. “Well, I’m not allowed to call you Jeju te, unless everyone around us speaks Kryptonian, which I think is a  _ stupid _ rule, because who's going to realise it’s Kryptonian? Like kids don’t come up with weird names for their parents all the time, and I never get to use it anymore, ever since Lexie started bringing Avia...and I’m shutting up now.” She shut her mouth so hard her teeth clicked together, and leaned back on the bed. 

Alex’s stance had loosened slightly, though Leora wasn’t sure wasn’t sure if it was due to her use of Kryptonian, the fact that ‘Lexie’ was obviously named after her, or the fact that kryptonite had apparently unleashed Leora’s usually carefully guarded tendency to ramble. 

“How did you end up back here?” Alex asked, her tone still firm, and anyone who hadn’t grown up without Alex Danvers’ patented piggyback rides wouldn’t have noticed the difference. 

“Don’t know yet.” Leora answered, stretching and turning, trying to get as much of the light to hit her body as possible. “It grabbed me and yanked me backwards. By the time I realised what was happening and managed to pull out of it’s grip, I ended up in this time period. I’ve been playing around with the physics to get me back, but I can’t go back until I manage to destroy whatever it was that pulled me back here.”

“Why?” Winn demanded, looking at her as though she just kicked his puppy. 

“Winn…” Leora groaned, visibly surprising him with the fact that she knew his name. “If the DEO had time travel? Okay, fine. I might pout and say don’t do anything stupid, but...repeat after me...mysterious unknown people, possibly bad guys, with time travel? Are a _very_ bad idea, end of time and space kind of bad idea. You with me?”

“Yeah.” Winn said, still looking a bit down.

Leora sighed slightly. “But you can help me go forward when I have to go back.”

As predicted, this perked Winn up quite a bit, and Alex relaxed even more. 

“What can you tell us about Metallo?” Alex asked. 

“He hits worse than a train.” Leora snarked. “Honestly? I’m not sure. He shouldn’t have been that strong, so something, or possibly a lot of things, have changed. Cadmus is definitely up to something.”

“Cadmus?” J’onn repeated. 

“Ugh. I suck at this.” Leora muttered to herself. “Can we be done with the interrogation until the rest of the kryptonite is out of my system?”

“Kryptonite that shouldn’t even  _ be _ in your system.” Clark said, apparently finished his quiet simmering. “You told me that only the DEO had access to the kryptonite.” He said, going toe-to-toe with J’onn. “So how would you like to explain what happened out there? A kryptonite-charged cyborg almost killed Kara! Would have killed her, if not for her daughter, who’s alive only because she’s only half-Kryptonian, and almost killed me.” He had been leashing his anger, that was quite obvious. “Start talking, J’onn.”

J’onn’s voice was even, but the superheroes could pick up the strain. “A shipment went missing four months ago. We’ve done all we can to find it.”

“Four months ago?” Kara repeated, shocked and a little horrified that she had not heard about this yet. Did J’onn not trust her?

“‘Went missing,’” Superman repeated. 

“Stolen.” Alex said, drawing the attention to her. “We thought it was an inside job, but everyone on the transport team came up clean.”

“So you have a mole.” Superman said.

“We don’t know that.” J’onn replied, calmly.

Superman was growing angrier. “If you’d gotten rid of it when I told you to…”

“We would have been helpless when Non and Astra launched Myriad.” J’onn broke in. “Or have you forgotten there was a force even the Man of Steel couldn’t defeat?” J’onn started to walk by Superman, but the Man of Steel put out a hand to stop him. 

“Superman and Martian Manhunter are gonna fight.” Winn said to himself. “This is  _ terrible _ . This is  _ awesome _ .”

“We have given our lives protecting the people of Earth. If you cared about Kara at  _ all. _ ”

“Watch what you say.” J’onn said, his composure breaking enough for his anger to interrupt.

“Or what?” Superman yelled, demanding something.

Before J’onn could respond, there was a displacing of air, and just as quickly, Leora was standing in protectively in front of J’onn, using all of her strength to hold Superman’s arm, gritting her teeth in pain, but refusing to be moved. “You want to step back, Kal-El.” She said, voice going low, threat laced through it. “You want to step back right now. I may be weak, but I’ll still fight you.”

“Because of him, you nearly died!” Superman said in shock, staring at her.

“No, I nearly died because  _ Cadmus _ stole kryptonite.” Leora corrected him. 

“If he had just destroyed it…” Superman started. 

“Then I would have died when you had your mind-controlled fingers wrapped around my throat a few years ago, in my time stream.” Leora spat back at him. “Had Batman not had kryptonite to weaken you. Or even before that, when I was  _ fourteen _ and tripping out on red k, and you were too busy trying to convince Jeju te that I had turned evil to even  _ think _ about another answer.  _ J’onn _ and the DEO tracked me down, and weakened me enough with green kryptonite to get me back here and monitor me, until I was back to normal.” Her face softened slightly, but just slightly. “You’re not a bad person, Kal-El, you’re family, and I still love you, but you forget you aren’t perfect or invincible.” She sighed slightly. “Kryptonians can go bad, and Earth needs to have people with a defence against us. Someone not you, Momma Sunny, or me.”

Before the DEO could play host to an all-out superhero brawl, with Supergirl looking as though she didn’t know what side to take, the monitors around the room all flickered to life, with an eerie, bald, doll-like head, and as it spoke, it was interspersed with distorted images and clips, and all turned to it.

“ _ People of National City. The Earth has been stolen from us and the enemy has come in the guise of heroes. They say they come in peace, to protect us from ourselves. But how long will it be before these gods decide to rule instead of serve? We are the antidote to their poison. We are the scientists that will show them what humans are capable of. Those who have sided with the invaders will not be spared. You cannot stop us. We are everywhere. We are Cadmus. _ ”

“Cadmus.” Superman said, still staring at the now-black screens.

“Announcing themselves to the world.” Winn said, a new seriousness in his frame. 

“Declaring open war.” J’onn agreed.

“They want to kill us.” Supergirl said, a little more shocked than she should be. “All of us.”

“Cadmus has my father.” Alex said, bringing everyone’s attention to her. “If they’ve turned John Corben into Metallo, what do you think they’ve done with him?”

“We’ll find him.” Supergirl said comfortingly, putting an arm around her sister.

“And stop them.” Superman said sharply. “ _ All of them _ .” He looked suspiciously at Leora.

“How?” Winn asked, redirecting his attention. 

“Metallo isn’t just flesh and blood anymore. Cadmus has given him a metal endoskeleton. Traces of the alloy had to end up on my hands when I hit him. I can analyse it at the Fortress of Solitude."

“Agent Schott, go get Non and Astra’s anti-kryptonite technology out of storage. See if you can improve upon it for our three friends here.”

“I...I get to make Superman’s new suit?” Winn asked, eyes wide. 

“No pressure.” Superman said to him, heading for the door. 

“I’ll help.” Leora told Winn. “Pretty sure some future tech went into changing Metallo this time around, so we’ll see if I can even the playing field.” Still, she watched as J’onn approached Superman out of the corner of her eye.

“Superman.” J’onn said, trying to be slightly more respectful as he approached someone he had once counted a friend. “This thing is bigger than the both of us. We should work together on this.”

“I hope you like the cold.” Was all the Kryptonian said in reply.


End file.
